Committee looking at reopening Redwood Valley school

The Ukiah Unified School District board of trustees has asked a committee to look at the possibility of reopening Redwood Valley Elementary School, which closed in 2010.

"All of our enrollment in the elementary schools is above 400, which the UUSD board decided it did not want to exceed," said UUSD Superintendent Deb Kubin, explaining that the UUSD board voted earlier this month to have a committee "look at opening that school back up."

While enrollment this year would support reopening the school, Kubin said enrollment last year did not, "so that's why we really need to study it and see if we really need to open it."

The elementary schools in Hopland and Redwood Valley were closed in 2010, and though a committee had been looking at the future of the school in Redwood Valley, Kubin said it was not clear until now exactly what the committee was tasked with exploring.

At its last meeting, the board passed a motion unanimously directing that a committee be formed to "evaluate the needs of elementary students in the Redwood Valley/Calpella area, and the district as a whole. The committee will gather data, including community input, look at demographic data, financial feasibility, school configuration and innovative educational programs."

"The intent is to look at what we might be able to put on the Redwood Valley campus," Kubin said. "Not only to alleviate some of the crowding we are experiencing, but could we put an innovative program there to make it a magnet school, such as science and technology, or a school of the arts?"

Kubin said the committee is made up of parents, teachers and community members, as well as administrators, and will be reporting back to the UUSD board in March of next year.

The final recommendation is expected "no later than December of 2014."

Justine Frederiksen can be reached at udjjf@ukiahdj.com, on Twitter @JustFrederiksen or at 468-3521.